E-DRUG: Novartis signs deal with WHO on TB drugs
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[Crossposted with thanks from IP-HEALTH. Copied as fair use. WB]
http://www2.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-un-novartis-tuberculo
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Novartis Signs Deal to Provide TB Drugs
By Associated Press
December 19, 2003, 7:56 AM EST
GENEVA -- Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis signed an agreement Friday
with the United Nations health agency to provide free drugs to treat half a
million tuberculosis sufferers over the next five years.
The donation, which will cost the company $7 million, will be overseen by
the World Health Organization and ties in with a campaign by the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which has committed $400 million
over the past two years to control TB.
"Tuberculosis cannot be fought by governments alone," said Richard Feachem,
executive director of the fund in welcoming the donation.
Novartis, one of the world's largest drug companies, reported a full-year
profit of $5.3 billion in 2002.
The drugs to treat TB are well-established and relatively cheap but many
people are missing out because of lack of access to good quality treatments,
says WHO, which calls TB the world's leading curable infectious killer.
Almost 2 million people die from it each year, particularly in Africa, Asia
and the former communist bloc.
Novartis will buy the drugs from a producer in Bangalore, India, for the
Global Drug Facility, which organizes bulk procurement of drugs for projects
in developing countries.
The treatment will be provided as a fixed dose of four drugs in easy-to-use
blister packs, which ensure that more patients take the drugs correctly and
reduce the risk of developing drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella, who himself suffered from tuberculosis as a
child, said the donation is "to help some of the poorest patients in the
world."
Copyright � 2003, The Associated Press
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